The recent Machinarium appreciation thread reminded me of something I've always enjoyed in certain games - a visual identity that is so unique and stylized that if you saw a screenshot of the game, you'd have no idea it was from a game at all.
Sometimes a game just has an illustrative look to it that looks like it was just a framed painting. A lot of prerendered backgrounds and classic JRPG art did this very well.
(I would do unspeakable things for an HD version of Chrono Cross...)
Modern games have really leveraged their art style and technical prowess though to make games that at first glance look like they're not games at all.
Cuphead looks like a classic cartoon...
Gris blew me away by looking like a crazy painting brought to life.
While I'm sure it's easier to do this in 2D than 3D, we've had a lot of 3D games with styles that don't immediately make me think of video games either.
Sometimes I see a game and it looks like it could've just been a hand-crafted illustration, or a pic from a gorgeous cartoon, and those visuals always stick out in my mind compared to what we normally see and expect from video game graphics.
What are some games or visuals that at first glance you might mistake for something outside of video games?
Sometimes a game just has an illustrative look to it that looks like it was just a framed painting. A lot of prerendered backgrounds and classic JRPG art did this very well.
(I would do unspeakable things for an HD version of Chrono Cross...)
Modern games have really leveraged their art style and technical prowess though to make games that at first glance look like they're not games at all.
Cuphead looks like a classic cartoon...
Gris blew me away by looking like a crazy painting brought to life.
While I'm sure it's easier to do this in 2D than 3D, we've had a lot of 3D games with styles that don't immediately make me think of video games either.
Sometimes I see a game and it looks like it could've just been a hand-crafted illustration, or a pic from a gorgeous cartoon, and those visuals always stick out in my mind compared to what we normally see and expect from video game graphics.
What are some games or visuals that at first glance you might mistake for something outside of video games?